Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy are in danger of being overshadowed at tomorrow's Anglo-French summit by a global leader who oversees a transnational empire built on British money and French talent: Arsène Wenger.

The Arsenal manager's symbolic role as the living embodiment of the entente cordiale will be cemented when he formally welcomes the two leaders at the gates of the Emirates stadium to mark the start of the summit. Such is football's cultural dominance at this summit that Arsenal is not just being held up as a glowing example of cross-Channel cooperation; it will also emerge from the event as a model for global development. After Wenger bestows his blessing on the Brown-Sarkozy union with a 10-minute pre-summit chat, the three men will walk onto the pitch, where children from Arsenal's Double Club will demonstrate how they learn French and football.

Sarkozy's arrival today as part of a 36-hour state visit is an attempt to rebrand him as a dignified father-of-the-nation where his dire approval ratings dipped again this weekend.

The French president, who will stay at Windsor Castle tonight with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, will push his belief that a new Franco-British axis or "fraternity" has overtaken the old Franco-German alliance at the summit. He will discuss increasing French troops to Afghanistan, immigration cooperation and nuclear energy. But just as important is the message he sends to voters back in France.

The Windsor Castle visit is the first battle in his image war to, as political observers call it, "re-presidentialise" himself after his celebrity style and irreverence saw his ruling centre-right party battered in recent local elections. He will use the visit to sell the difficult reforms of the French economy, labour laws, pensions and health services which await him as soon as he touches back down in Paris tomorrow night.

"The president is attempting to re-presidentialise his image," said Dominique Moisi, a political analyst with the French Institute for International Relations in Paris. He said that Sarkozy was under pressure to have a successful meeting with Brown to bolster his standing as France prepares to take control of the rotating EU presidency this summer.

Central to Sarkozy's statesmen-like image on the London visit is, paradoxically, his former super-model wife. After the whirlwind deliberately public courtship that alienated the electorate, Bruni-Sarkozy has restyled herself as a demure first lady, posing in the style of Bernadette Chirac, inspecting wines and place-settings for Élysée dinners. The leftwing Libération highlighted the importance to Sarkozy's new image of his wife's new "sister of the annunciation" look.

But the sale of a black and white nude photo of Bruni-Sarkozy which will be auctioned by Christie's in New York next month has added to the media pressure she faces.

The Brown-Sarkozy relationship is said by officials in London and Paris to be "warm." They have known each other since meeting at international summits when they were both ambitious finance-ministers intent on overthrowing their leaders, Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair.